Category Archives: Joe Biden

Hamas negotiators under pressure to produce list of hostages to be released

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Officials at Cairo talks say list is first step in truce deal as militant group demands aid into Gaza

Egyptian and Qatari officials are putting pressure on Hamas negotiators in Cairo to produce a list of hostages to be released as the first step in a phased ceasefire agreement with Israel, according to officials familiar with the talks.

Israel has not sent a delegation to the second day of talks in Cairo, demanding that Hamas present a list of 40 elderly, sick and female hostages who would be the first to be released as part of a truce that would initially last six weeks, beginning with the month of Ramadan, the officials say.

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Biden says in rare print interview he’ll beat Trump but polls say otherwise

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US president tells New Yorker he is ‘the only one who has ever beat’ Trump but clear majorities think he is too old for second term

In a rare print interview, Joe Biden addressed fears over his chances of victory in the coming US presidential election and said he was “the only one who has ever beat” his likely Republican challenger, Donald Trump, adding: “And I’ll beat him again.”

But the president was voicing a conviction at odds with most polling, in which clear majorities think that at 81 he is too old for a second term and narrow majorities put Trump ahead in a general election match-up.

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Israel reportedly close to accepting six-week Gaza ceasefire, US official says

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Israel ‘more or less’ accepts deal on hostage release and Gaza aid, but Hamas stuck on ‘category of vulnerable hostages’

Israel is reported to be close to accepting a six-week ceasefire proposal for Gaza, a senior Biden administration official told several US news outlets on Saturday, two days after more than 100 Palestinians died while attempting to access aid trucks in the territory.

The official said that there is a “framework deal” and Israel has “more or less accepted” a ceasefire to allow for the release of Hamas-held hostages in Gaza and to allow aid into the territory that has been devastated by four months of bombardment, killing more than 30,000 people.

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Joe Biden’s disapproval rating reaches new high, according to new poll

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The president has a 47% disapproval rating, but it’s a mixed bag when accounting for ‘double haters’ – those who dislike Trump too

Strong voter disapproval of Joe Biden’s job performance has reached 47% – the highest negative polling number at any point in his presidency, according to a survey published on Saturday.

The Siena College-conducted poll, commissioned by the New York Times, showed that Biden currently lags behind likely Republican candidate Donald Trump 43% to 48% in registered voters nationally.

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Joe Biden confuses Gaza with Ukraine in airdrop announcement

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President says US will ‘insist’ Israel does more to facilitate help, saying ‘children’s lives are on the line’

• Middle East crisis – live updates

Joe Biden twice confused Gaza with Ukraine as he was announcing that the US would provide desperately needed aid to Palestinians.

The US president, 81, confirmed on Friday that humanitarian assistance would be airdropped into Gaza and said the US would “insist” Israel did more to facilitate help for those affected by famine and the effects of war, saying: “Children’s lives are on the line”.

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Biden calls for compromise while Trump goes full red meat at US-Mexico border

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Dueling border visits of 2024 contenders 300 miles apart shows that immigration has become a central issue in the White House campaign

It might be seen as the first US presidential debate of 2024. Two candidates and two lecterns but 300 miles – and a political universe – apart.

Joe Biden and Donald Trump spent Thursday at the US-Mexico border, a vivid display of how central the immigration issue has become to the election campaign. Since it is far from certain whether official presidential debates will happen this year, the duelling visits might be as close as it gets.

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Biden urges Trump to help him pass immigration deal as both visit US border

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President implores Republicans to ‘show a little spine’ and support bipartisan border and security bill as Trump speaks at Eagle Pass

Joe Biden and his all-but certain Republican challenger, Donald Trump, made dueling visits to Texas border towns on Thursday, a rare overlap that sets the stage for an election-season clash over immigration.

In Brownsville, along the Rio Grande on the border with Mexico, Biden implored Congressional Republicans to “show a little spine” and support a bipartisan border security deal. Earlier this month Republican lawmakers blocked legislation they had previously clamored for, after Trump expressed his opposition to the measure.

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Euphoria star Hunter Schafer arrested at pro-Palestine protest during Joe Biden TV appearance

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The 25-year-old actor was among 30 demonstrators taken into custody during Joe Biden’s appearance on Late Night with Seth Meyers, organisers confirmed

Euphoria actor Hunter Schafer was among dozens of protesters arrested at NBC’s headquarters in Manhattan during the president Joe Biden’s appearance on Late Night with Seth Meyers earlier this week, organisers confirmed Wednesday.

The 25-year-old star was part of a group of more than 100 demonstrators who packed the lobby at 30 Rockefeller Plaza on Monday afternoon to call for a ceasefire in the Israel-Gaza war, the group Jewish Voice for Peace said.

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Michigan primary 2024: track live results

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Follow live as the state’s Republican and Democratic voters choose their preferred candidate for the US presidential election

Democrats and Republicans went to the polls on Tuesday for Michigan’s presidential primary. The critical swing state’s election will prove a test for both frontrunners, Joe Biden and Donald Trump. But a separate Republican convention held on Saturday will determine the final delegate count for the Republican party.

Here are the results from the 27 February Michigan primary:

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Hamas and Israel pour cold water on Biden’s hopes of imminent ceasefire

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US president’s remarks that there could be truce by Monday are ‘premature’, says political head of Hamas in Gaza

Israeli and Hamas officials have downplayed hopes expressed by Joe Biden that a ceasefire in the war in Gaza is imminent, raising questions about whether a temporary truce can be implemented before the Muslim holy month of Ramadan begins in two weeks’ time.

Basem Naim, the head of Hamas’s political division in Gaza, said over WhatsApp on Tuesday that the Palestinian Islamist movement had not yet formally received a new proposal for a ceasefire since last week’s indirect talks in Paris mediated by the US, Egypt and Qatar.

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What we know so far about the draft Israel-Hamas ceasefire deal

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Agreements on fighting, hostage and prisoner releases and aid in Gaza are part of terms the two sides could sign up to

The US president, Joe Biden, said he hoped a deal for a temporary ceasefire in Gaza and hostage release could be reached by next Monday, as negotiators for Israel and Hamas try to pin down the terms of a draft agreement.

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Michigan primary to test Biden and Trump among key voting groups

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Trump faces local leaders embroiled in factional dispute, while Biden faces a campaign by antiwar activists to abandon him

Voters will make their way to the polls in Michigan today, in a presidential primary that will test how much Joe Biden and Donald Trump should be worried about winning key groups of voters for the general election in the critical swing state.

Both face challenges within their respective parties. After underperforming the polls and struggling with suburban and college-educated Republican voters in earlier primaries, Trump’s campaign in Michigan is dealing with a state Republican party whose local leaders have been embroiled in an ugly factional dispute, while Biden faces a campaign by antiwar activists to abandon him over the president’s continued support for Israel’s military campaign in Gaza.

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Joe Biden hopeful of Gaza ceasefire by Monday as details of proposal emerge

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US president appears upbeat as Hamas reportedly mulls 40-day halt in fighting with Palestinian prisoners swapped for Israeli hostages

Joe Biden has said he believes a new, temporary ceasefire in Gaza is possible by next Monday, as Hamas was reportedly considering a draft agreement for a 40-day pause in fighting and the exchange of dozens of Israeli hostages for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners, according to a Reuters source.

“My national security adviser tells me that we’re close. We’re close. We’re not done yet,” Biden told reporters during a visit to New York on Monday after taping an appearance on NBC’s Late Night with Seth Meyers. “My hope is by next Monday, we’ll have a ceasefire.”

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Biden and Trump to visit US-Mexico border on same day

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Biden says he ‘didn’t know my good friend, apparently, is going’ as he plans Brownsville visit while Trump heads for Eagle Pass

Joe Biden and Donald Trump will both travel to the US border with Mexico on Thursday, dueling visits by the president and his probable opponent for re-election underlining the importance of immigration as an issue in the coming campaign.

Biden will visit Brownsville, Texas, in the Rio Grande valley, while his presidential predecessor will head for Eagle Pass, about 325 miles distant.

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Joe Biden says ‘good sex’ is key to long lasting marriage, book on US first ladies claims

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President ‘tamped down on his public bedroom declarations’ ahead of winning the presidency, Katie Rogers writes

President Joe Biden has joked to aides that the key to a long and lasting marriage is “good sex,” according to a new book about the nation’s first ladies, that casts a spotlight on his 47-year romance with Jill Biden.

“American Woman – The Transformation of the Modern First Lady, from Hillary Clinton to Jill Biden,” was authored by New York Times White House correspondent Katie Rogers and comes out this week.

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Six out of 10 South Carolina Republican primary voters think Biden wasn’t legitimately elected

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Exit polls show election denialism has become mainstream among Republicans despite studies finding no widespread fraud in 2020

More than 60% of South Carolina Republican primary voters said they don’t believe Joe Biden was legitimately elected, according to exit polls, the latest data point that underscores how election denialism has become a mainstream belief in the Republican party.

Eighty-seven percent of those who don’t believe the US president was legitimately elected supported Donald Trump, according to a CNN exit poll of South Carolina primary voters. Just 12% supported Nikki Haley. Among those who believe Biden legitimately won in 2020, the results were nearly flipped 81% supported Haley, while 19% supported the former president.

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Michigan governor says not voting for Biden over Gaza war ‘supports second Trump term’

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Gretchen Whitmer responds to calls by some Democrats to vote ‘uncommitted’ in Michigan’s primary on Tuesday

Gretchen Whitmer, the Michigan governor, pushed back on calls to not vote for Joe Biden over his handling of the Israel-Gaza conflict, saying on Sunday that could help Trump get re-elected.

“It’s important not to lose sight of the fact that any vote that’s not cast for Joe Biden supports a second Trump term,” she said on Sunday during an interview on CNN’s State of the Union. “A second Trump term would be devastating. Not just on fundamental rights, not just on our democracy here at home, but also when it comes to foreign policy. This was a man who promoted a Muslim ban.”

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‘Putin must lose everything’: defiant Zelenskiy hosts western leaders in Kyiv to mark two years of war

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Ukraine’s president met the prime ministers of Italy, Canada and Belgium in a show of unity after recent battlefield defeats

Volodymyr Zelenskiy welcomed western leaders to Kyiv on Saturday on the second anniversary of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, declaring that Vladimir Putin “must lose absolutely everything”.

Ukraine’s president met the prime ministers of Italy, Canada and Belgium – Giorgia Meloni, Justin Trudeau and Alexander De Croo – as well as the European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen.

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Biden met with Alexei Navalny’s widow Yulia Navalnaya, White House says

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US to impose over 500 new sanctions on Russia after Navalny, main opposition leader to Putin, died after being imprisoned by Kremlin

Joe Biden met with Alexei Navalny’s widow, Yulia Navalnaya, and the activist’s daughter, Dasha Navalnaya, in California on Thursday.

Navalny, the main opposition leader to the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, died in an Arctic penal colony last Friday after being imprisoned by the Kremlin.

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Ex-FBI informant charged with lying about Bidens arrested again

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Alexander Smirnov, who claims to have Russian intelligence links, taken into custody after meeting at lawyers’ offices in Las Vegas

The former FBI informant who is charged with lying about a multimillion-dollar bribery scheme involving Joe Biden’s family was again taken into custody in Las Vegas, two days after a judge released him, his attorneys said.

Alexander Smirnov was arrested during a meeting on Thursday morning at his lawyers’ offices in downtown Las Vegas. The arrest came after prosecutors appealed the judge’s ruling allowing 43-year-old Smirnov, who holds dual US-Israeli citizenship, to be released with a GPS monitor ahead of trial. He is charged with making a false statement and creating a false and fictitious record.

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